In League with Israel Part 23

"They're not as natural as Ray's b.u.t.tercups," answered Lois. "You can't guess whom she's making that table-cover for?"

Mrs. Marion held it up for them to see. "For that dear old grandmother where we were entertained at Chattanooga last summer," she said. "Don't you remember Mrs. Warford, Bethany? She couldn't hear well enough to enjoy the meetings, or to talk to us much, but her face was a perpetual welcome. She asked me into her room one day, and showed me a great bunch of red clover some one had sent her from the country. She seemed so pleased with it, and told me about the clover chains she used to make, and the b.u.t.tercups she used to pick in the meadows at home, with all the artlessness of a child. That is why I chose this design."

"There never was another like you, Cousin Ray," said Bethany. "You remember everything and everybody at Christmas, and I don't see how you ever manage to get through with so much work."

"Love lightens labor," quoted Miss Harriet, sententiously. "At least that's what my old copy-book used to say."

"And it also said, if I remember aright," said Miss Caroline, a little severely, "'Plan out your work, and work out your plan.' It's high time we were settling down to business, if we expect to accomplish anything."

While this Christmas council was in session in Miss Caroline's room, another was being held in an old farm-house in the northern part of the State, by Gottlieb Hartmann's wife and daughter. Everything in the room gave evidence of German thrift and neatness, from the s.h.i.+ning bra.s.s andirons on the hearth, to the geraniums blooming on the window-sill.

"Herzenruhe" was the name of the home Gottlieb Hartmann had left behind him in the Fatherland, when he came to America a poor emigrant boy; and that was the name now carved on the arch that spanned the wide entrance-gate, leading to the home and the well-tilled acres that he had earned by years of steady, honest toil.

It was indeed "heart's-ease," or heart-rest, to every wayfarer sheltered under its ample roof-tree.

He had acc.u.mulated his property by careful economy, but he gave out with the same conscientious spirit with which he gathered in. No matter when the summons might come, at nightfall or at c.o.c.k-crowing, he was ready to give an account of his faithful stewards.h.i.+p. Not only had he divided his bread with the hungry, but he had given time and personal care, and a share in his own home-life, to those who were in need.

More than one young farmer, jogging past Herzenruhe in a wagon of his own, looked gratefully up the long lane, and remembered that he owed the steady habits of his manhood and his present prosperity to Gottlieb Hartmann. For in all the years since he had had a place of his own, there had seldom been a time when some homeless boy or another had not been a member of his household.

He was an old man now, white-haired and rheumatic, and called grandfather by all the country side; but he was still young at heart, sweet and sound to the very core, like a hardy winter apple. His children had all married and gone farther West, except his oldest daughter, Carlotta, whom no one had ever been able to lure away from her comfortable home-nest. She was an energetic, self-willed little body, and had gradually a.s.sumed control until the entire household revolved around her. Just now she had wheeled her sewing-machine beside the table, on which the evening lamp stood, and was preparing to dress a whole family of dolls to be packed in the Christmas boxes that were soon to be sent West.

Her mother sat on one side of the fireplace, her sweet, wrinkled old face bright with the loving thoughts that her needles were putting into a little red mitten, destined for one of the boxes.

"It will be the first Christmas since I can remember," said Carlotta, "that there will be no little ones here, and no tree to light. Ben's boy was here last year, and all of Mary's children the year before. It's a pity they are so far away. It will just spoil my Christmas."

Mr. Hartmann laid down the German Advocate he was reading.

"Ach, Lotta," he said, "I forgot to tell you. There will be a little lad here to-morrow to take dinner with us. When I was in town to-day I met our good friend, Frank Marion, and he had a boy with him whose father is just dead, and he is the guardian."

"How many years has it been since Mr. Marion first came here?" asked Carlotta. "Seems to me I was only a little girl, and now I have pulled out lots of gray hairs already."

"It has been twenty years at least," answered her mother. "It was while we were building the ice-house, I know."

"Yes," a.s.sented her husband, "I had gone into Ridgeville one Sat.u.r.day to get some new boots, and I met him in the shoestore. He was just a young fellow making his first trip, and he seemed so strange and homesick that when I found he was a country boy and a strong Methodist, I brought him out here to stay over Sunday with us."

"I remember you brought him right into the kitchen where I was dropping noodles in the soup," answered Mrs. Hartmann, "and he has seemed to feel like one of the family ever since."

"Yes, he has never missed coming out here every time he has been in this part of the State, from that day to this," said Mr. Hartmann, taking up his paper again.

Meanwhile, in the Ridgeville Hotel, three miles away, Mr. Marion was telling Lee of all the pleasant things that awaited him at Herzenruhe.

The boy was so impatient to start that he could hardly wait for the time to come, and he dreamed all night of the country.

Mr. Marion saw very little of him during the visit. The delighted child spent all his time in the barn, or in the dairy, helping Miss Carlotta.

"O, I wish we didn't ever have to go away," he said. "There's the dearest little colt in the barn, and six Holstein calves, and a big pond in the pasture covered with ice!"

Later he confided to Mr. Marion, "Miss Carlotta makes doughnuts every Sat.u.r.day, and she says there's bushels of hickory-nuts in the garret."

When Miss Carlotta found that Mr. Marion was going on to the next town before starting home, she insisted on keeping Lee until his return.

"Let him get some of 'the sun and wind into his pulses.' It will be good for him," she said.

"n.o.body knows better than I," answered Mr. Marion, "the sweet wholesomeness of country living. I should be glad to leave him in such an atmosphere always. He would develop into a much purer manhood, and I am sure would be far happier."

Miss Carlotta shook her head sagely. "We'll see," she said. "Don't say anything to him about it, but we'll try him while you're gone, and then I'll talk to father. He seems right handy about the ch.o.r.es, and there is a good school near here."

Two days later, when Mr. Marion came back, he went out to the barn to find Lee. The boy had just scrambled out of a haymow with his hat full of eggs. His face was beaming.

"I've learned to milk," he said proudly, "and I rode to the post-office this afternoon, horseback."

"Do you like it here, my boy?" asked Mr. Marion.

"Like it!" repeated Lee, emphatically. "Well I should say! Mr. Hartmann is just the grandfatheriest old grandfather I ever knew, and they're all so good to me."

It proved to be a very eventful journey for the boy; for after some discussion about his board, it was arranged that he should come back to the farm after the holidays.

"Do I have to wait till then?" he asked. "Why couldn't I stay right on, now I'm here. You could send my clothes to me, and it wouldn't cost near as much as to go home first."

"What will Bethany say?" asked Mr. Marion. "She is planning for a big tree and lots of fun Christmas."

"But papa won't be there," pleaded Lee. "I'd so much rather stay here than go back to town and find him gone."

"Then you shall stay," exclaimed Miss Carlotta, touched by the expression of his face. "We'll have a tree here. You can dig one up in the woods yourself."

When Mr. Marion drove away, Lee rode down the lane with him to open the big gate. After he had driven through he turned for one more look.

The boy stood under the archway waving good-bye with his cap. The late afternoon sun shone brightly on the happy face, and illuminated the snow, still clinging to the quaintly carved letters on the arch above, till it seemed they were all golden letters that spelled the name of Herzenruhe.

This holiday season would have been a sad time for Bethany, had she allowed herself to listen to the voices of Christmas past, but Baxter Trent's example helped her. She turned resolutely away from her memories, saying: "I will be like him. No heart shall ever have the shadow of my sorrow thrown across it."

Full of one thought only, to bring some happiness into every life that touched her own, she found herself sharing the delight of every child she saw crowding its face against the great show windows. She antic.i.p.ated the pleasure that would attend the opening of each bundle carried by every purchaser that jostled against her in the street. It was impossible for her to breathe the general air of festivity at home, and not carry something of the Christmas spirit to the office with her.

"Everybody has caught the contagion," she said gayly, coming into the office Sat.u.r.day afternoon, with sparkling eyes, and snowflakes still clinging to her dark furs. "I saw that old bachelor, Mr. Crookshaw, whom everybody thinks so miserly, going along with a little red cart under his arm, and a tin locomotive bulging out of his pocket."

"Jack is missing a great deal," said David, "by not being down-town every day."

"O no, indeed!" she exclaimed. "He is nearly wild now with the excitement of the preparations that are going on at home. That reminds me, he has written a special invitation for you to be present at the lighting of his tree Christmas eve. He put it in my m.u.f.f, so that I could not possibly forget. I am sure you will enjoy watching the children," she added, after she had told him of their various plans, "and I hope you will be sure to come."

"Thank you," he responded, warmly. "That is the second invitation I have had this afternoon. Mr. Marion has just been in to ask me to attend the League's devotional meeting to-morrow night. He says it will be especially interesting on account of the season, and insists that 'turn about is fair play.' He went to our Atonement-day services, and he wants me to be present at his Christmas services."

"We shall be very glad to have you come," said Bethany. "Dr. Bascom is to lead the meeting instead of any of the young people, who usually take turns. I can not tell how such a meeting might impress an outsider; to me they are very inspiring and helpful."

That night, as she sat in her room indulging in a few minutes of meditation before putting out the light, she reviewed her acquaintance with David Herschel. Her conscience condemned her for the little use she had made of her opportunity.

It had been four months since he had come into the office, and while they had several times discussed their respective religions, she had never found an occasion when she could make a personal appeal to him to accept Christ. Once when she had been about to do so, he had abruptly walked away, and another time, a client had interrupted them.

"I must speak to him frankly," she said. Then she knelt and prayed that something might be said or sung in the service of the morrow that would prepare the way for such a conversation.